Ham Radio People Metro ATL

[Old_School]

Shoot me a PM when you’re ready. I need to get the display on my 897 replaced. It’s been fun sourcing a replacement that doesn’t cost almost as much as I paid for the radio.

It wasn't a trivial task to replace it, but I managed to get it done. Bought the display in 2019 for $179 IIRC?

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[Wheeler]

The balun just reduces RF on the coax shield. I think it is necessary but there are varying opinions on this. It won’t affect resonance. It’s not hard to make a balun with your feed line. I simply wind 5 wraps on a piece of 4” PVC pipe, then zip tie the coils so it stays parallel. A proper length dipole won’t require a tuner either. The tuner simply compensates for a poor antenna match. If you are using a single band dipole, use an SWR meter to fine tune the length of the dipole for the frequency you need. That will give you maximum performance and eliminate the need for a tuner. 1/2 wave Dipole length is simply 468/Freq. For example, a 10 meter dipole would be 468/28.400 = 16.47’. Each leg would need to be half that or 8.23’. I use a short piece of PVC pipe for an insulator. Best performance will be at least 1 wavelength high. My 10 meter dipole is 17’ high and is trimmed to 1:1.1 SWR. It performs really well. Attached photo shows a balun made from coils of feed line on a home brew 2 meter Slim Jim antenna.View attachment 3201798

This inspired me to figure out how the SWR meter on my radio works. I tried building a home brew j pole and the radio said the SWR was too high. I was rather pissed as I was pretty particular about the measurements.

thanks for the info about the dipoles. I think I’ll give that a try as well. It just so happens I have a couple of rolls of #14 stranded wire laying about...

 

[Wheeler]

It wasn't a trivial task to replace it, but I managed to get it done. Bought the display in 2019 for $179 IIRC?

Sent from my SM-G781U1 using Tapatalk

That’s pretty close to what Yaesu quoted me for a completely new front panel. They said they no longer stocked the lcd screen.

 

[Old_School]

That’s pretty close to what Yaesu quoted me for a completely new front panel. They said they no longer stocked the lcd screen.

Yes. Apparently the newer lcd screen has different circuitry from the original, requiring a new driver board. So now you have to buy the whole assembly. But I was so glad to rid my rig of the zebra display...some days it worked, some days it was unreadable.

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[Old_School]

That’s pretty close to what Yaesu quoted me for a completely new front panel. They said they no longer stocked the lcd screen.

BTW, if you're only using your radio as a base, you might want to look into a CAT display. Uses an external lcd screen and is a bit cheaper. Plugs into the Yaesu data port. Available on ebay for $120.

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[Wheeler]

BTW, if you're only using your radio as a base, you might want to look into a CAT display. Uses an external lcd screen and is a bit cheaper. Plugs into the Yaesu data port. Available on ebay for $120.

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I had looked at those. I’ll have to double check but I think the reason I decided against it was that it didn’t show the menus. I’m using a Raspberry Pi (small, single board computer) for rig control. It needs the data port and the XAT port on the back of the radio.

 

[mountainmoped]

I use a CatDisplay I use on my Yaesu 817 when operating at home. I also have a bluetooth dongle that lets me view the frequency and control the radio on my cell phone when i am operating foot mobile.

 

[mountainmoped]

 

[Wheeler]

So the guys at Ham Radio Outlet told me that installing a dipole in the attic wouldn’t work and I’d not be able to make any contacts.

A friend in NC and I had a rather lengthy QSO last night on 40m via CW using the Raspberry Pi computers and rig control software. I dropped my output power down to 5 watts to test what could and couldn’t be picked up.

Ive decided that the guys and amateur radio stores are much like the guys at gun stores.

 

[Wheeler]

I use a CatDisplay I use on my Yaesu 817 when operating at home. I also have a bluetooth dongle that lets me view the frequency and control the radio on my cell phone when i am operating foot mobile.

I looked at those dongles before going with the CAT/data cables. It would have been nice to not have the cords but I needed access to the sound card on the computer.